The government of China has forced the removal of yet another foreign-made communication app, the New York Times reported today.

Microsoft Corp.’s video chat service Skype has been removed from the Apple App Store and several other app platforms in China for allegedly violating the country’s laws, but it is unclear exactly which laws the app broke.

“We have been notified by the Ministry of Public Security that a number of voice over internet protocol apps do not comply with local law,” an Apple spokeswoman told the New York Times. “Therefore these apps have been removed from the app store in China. These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business.”

Apple was not the only company forced to drop Skype from its catalog. The app has also disappeared from several Android app stores within the country, including those operated by Huawei and Xiaomi. A spokesperson for Microsoft confirmed Skype’s removal today, but the company also claimed that the move is only temporary and that it is working to get Skype restored as soon as possible.

Although Skype is currently unavailable for download in China, the app itself has not actually been blocked within the country yet, and it still functions for users who already have the service installed. That could quickly change, however, if Microsoft does not comply with whatever changes the Chinese government requests for Skype.

China has been steadily strengthening its cybersecurity laws as part of a 14-month campaign that began in January with a law restricting access to virtual private networks, which are often used to bypass the so-called “Great Firewall of China” that blocks unapproved web services. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said at the time that “China’s internet connection service market … has signs of disordered development that requires urgent regulation and governance.”

Neither Microsoft nor Apple explained what local laws Skype supposedly violated, but the popular video chat service is hardly the first foreign communications app targeted by the Chinese government. For example, China banned Facebook in 2009 after groups of college students used the social network to organize antigovernment demonstrations in 2009. This ban is still in effect today, and it eventually extended to include Facebook’s other services, such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.

Nearly all of Google LLC’s services, including YouTube and Gmail, are also blocked in China, as are other services such as Twitter, Slack, Pinterest, Ustream and Vimeo.

Image: Microsoft